TGIF

Strange this morning, at least it seems odd to me as a non weather person -- sitting up here in my bed with the blind open in the door so I can see out into the blackness, thought I glimpsed a quick flash of lightning. So I look at the iTitan weather display on my iPad to see what’s going on. Shows us and the entire northern Gulf of Mexico to the west of us from about Morgan City to, now as I watch, drifting into Apalachee Bay, covered in green, indicating rain, or rain clouds, with the entire -- I suppose it’s a system -- apparently moving eastward, such that we soon would be covered. However, and this is what caught my eye, right smack in the middle of it, south from Gulfport to Pensacola, is a band of yellow and orange clouds that seem to be fighting their way westward. Is it rotating? IDK, it seems to be more -- sliding -- sneaking -- the bottom sneaking east and the middle moving west and leaving its castoff part to the north of it drifting eastward and over us. WTH?

If the thing is moving west I won’t worry about it. But I can’t really tell. At least it isn’t circular with a hole in the middle, it’s long and narrow, like somebody stepped on it and squashed it out flat but didn't kill it and it's still fighting to become what it's not yet. OK, tell me it isn't tropical and I'll relax.

No matter what happened yesterday, so as not to be distracted I’m not even glancing at A.Word.A.Day yet, much less email or the news. My mind is on my books. I have, I’ll have to count them, hundreds of books here, well, surely way more than one hundred, in my upstairs office, or study, or whatever I might call the upstairs bedroom at the northeast corner of this American Foursquare house. Yesterday and the day before I loaded them into my arms an armload at a time and lugged them downstairs. Some I’ve already taken to my office at the church. Once I get them all there, and I think it’ll be a couple hundred books, I’ll pick out any few I want to keep and set them aside. The rest I may put out on a table in the parish library for anyone to take. For the most part these are not books that would likely interest anyone browsing the public library, most are related to my vocation. Want a Greek N.T. and books on N.T. Greek? Got you covered. Want to read Frederick Buechner, John Claypool, Martin Bell, C.S. Lewis, Barbara Brown Taylor, ... ? Gotchoocovered.

Linda is doing the same with her collection of books, mostly novels, especially those very long historical novels in which series of books carry the reader across centuries.

Why are we doing this? Because there’s too much stuff in this, count them, 13 room plus one, two three, 4 1/2 bath house that’s over a hundred feet long counting covered porches at each end, and varies 33 to 45 feet wide. Built in 1912 for seven, and nearly doubled in footprint if not s.f. by Linda and me, there are two of us and three households of furniture and things crouching here with us. We are starting to clean house, eh? Books first. Maybe dishes next? Or furniture. Or art.

Oh, I forgot to mention, the huge walk-in attic is loaded.

Want something? Need anything?

TGIF is not for clergy, for clergy it’s TGIM.

Pax

Tom+ still mucking along through +Time

OMG, I forgot, there's another couple hundred books in my downstairs study and in Joe's room ... aaahhhhhhgggg

Anybody need some sofas and chairs? How about my old Mickey Mouse doll? Or a car model?